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MY STORY

I fell in love with dance at the age of 12 when I started taking hip hop classes in a community center. Although dancing had always been in my life, I started out as a child dancing traditional Burundian dance, I had no idea dance would become my profession.

Starting out as a street dancer I had the chance to have and work with masters such as Tyrone Proctor (Soul Train Dancer/NYC), Alexandra Spicey Landé, Dazl St-Louis and many more amazing teachers. I immediately dived into the world of battles and freestyle, learning about myslef and finding my identity as an artist.

Over the years, I won several Battles in different styles:

  • Supernova - Whacking - Taiwan - 2018

  • Step Ya game up-Whacking- New York - 2010/2014

  • H20 Let your Art flow-Hip Hop/Contemporary - Montreal - 2015

  • Klondike Heat- All styles - Whitehorse, Yukon - 2015

  • Soul Full Night- Freestyle - Osaka,japan - 2012

  • Queens Creation-Hip Hop - Montreal - 2014

  • House vs Hip Hop - Montreal - 2013

  • Bust A Move- Whacking - Montreal - 2012

  • Shut up N dance- Hip Hop - Montreal - 2014

  • House Dance international-Whacking- New York - 2010

 

I was also blessed to win the DANCER OF THE YEAR award for 2014 at the Gadfly Award in Toronto and HIT OF THE YEAR at Hit the floor in 2018 . These awards rewards Canadian artist who had distinguished themselves in the dance industry with his accomplishments over the year.

 

I built myself an international fan base and reputation and started to travel the world giving workshops and judging battles. I visited more than 10 countries: Japan, China (Hong Kong), South Korea, Kazaksthan, United State, Russia, Haiti, Burundi, Taiwan, Vietnam, Tchad and Morocco. All that experience made me see the bigger picture of the world of street dance and taught me how street dance could reach different kinds of people from many cultures, origins and languages.

In 2009 I founded Fôret Noire -  a whacking duet with Martine "cherry" Bruneau that is now a dance compagny. Our goal was to break the boundaries in whacking and with that in mind we created the biggest whacking battle in Canada - Hot Mess.  We put together multiple showcases and taught workshops around the world. We also founded a non-profit organization called 100Lux that produces a street dance show every year at La Place des Arts in Montreal since 2010.    

All this exposure got me to work with amazing artists in the industry such as : Arcade Fire, Corneille, Lukay, Gardy Fury, Young Paris, Rime Salmi, Afrotronix, Fraka, Afrikeletro, Static Gold, Maxim Proulx, Mélanie Renaud ....

At some point, I realized that I was hungry for more and in 2011 I entered a B.A. program in contemporary dance at UQAM . From there, I started participating in many creation projects as a dancer for: Alexandra Landé, Saxon Fraser, Dominique Porte, and Manon Levac. These experiences taught me a lot and I also had the chance to train has an apprentice  with the RUBBERBANDANCE Group for a year.

Amazed by the power of creation, I started choreographing pieces myself. I'm also very fascinated by the way technology has transformed our lives. With these two ideas in mind, I create dance pieces that use new technology as a tool of expression. I had the chance to work, as a choreographer and dancer, with an amazing team on the JUST A REFLEKTOR interactive video directed by Vincent Morisset with the Google Creative Lab that won several awards and prices including and Emmy award. It was definitely one of the projects that used all the skills I had developed during all those years.

Going from Hip hop , Whacking , House , Contemporary .....I'm constantly trying to push my limits and see where that takes me, my journey has been pretty inspiring so far and I am slowly finding a way to combine all the things that I love in all the projects that I make. More than 10 years of dancing and I feel like there's so much more to do, so much more to learn!

 

-Axelle Munezero-

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